


another year

by crickets



Category: Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-04-24
Updated: 2011-04-24
Packaged: 2017-10-20 04:16:16
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,523
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/208635
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crickets/pseuds/crickets





	another year

  
Stefan can smell the wolf on her when she comes into the room. The scent is intoxicating and it winds him up.

"I'm going hunting," he tells her, when what he really wants to tell her is that she needs to take a shower before coming to see him after being with Tyler. He hopes his tone is enough to indicate that she isn't invited on this particular trip.

True to form, Caroline ignores the hint. "I'll come too," she says, that inarguable smile on her lips.

The Virginia summer air is hot and muggy, even after dark, and Stefan knows Caroline has little patience for these types of things. He should have a pretty good chance of wearing her down, losing her in the woods before she gets frustrated and makes her way back to the house. But Caroline manages to catch up to him every time, a streak of golden blonde on his periphery.

"What are you looking for?" she asks him, catching her breath when he stops momentarily in an opening of pine trees, her hands on her bare knees.

For Stefan, the question is a loaded one. "Something," he answers, mouthing the word slowly before he moves again like a flash of light.

\--

Back at the boarding house, their bellies full, lounging lazily on either side of the room, Caroline finally probes him. "What's the deal, Stefan?" she asks, sitting up, swinging her tanned legs over the edge of the couch. "You've been acting weird."

Stefan is across the room in one second, pulling Caroline to her feet. He buries his nose in the crook of her neck and inhales deeply, ignoring her slight gasp as he does this, and growling out. "I can smell him on you," he says. "The wolf. You've been feeding from him. And that's not all."

"So what if I am?" She says defiantly, and is reminded of a thousand conversations with her mother. Stefan's grip tightens. "He _wants_ me to," she continues. "He _likes it._ " She says this last part with a particular snarl and watches as Stefan's eyes turn red and his mouth drops open, revealing sharp fangs.

Caroline's instinct is to attack, and in a second she is on him, but when he doesn't fight back, rather than inflicting harm, she's kissing him instead, dragging his shirt over his head. _Naked,_ she thinks. _I need you naked_.

After a brief session of fumbling with buttons and zippers and finally just tearing at fabric, Stefan turns her around, pressing his hips into hers as she kneels there on the rug, wasting very little time. Sex with Tyler can be rough, animalistic even, when Tyler lets it be. But sex with Stefan is something else entirely. Caroline throws her head up, pressing back against Stefan's penetration, groaning from deep in her belly. His hands circle her waist and she can feel his fingers snake to her middle, his thumb brushing over her clit.

Neither of them seem to notice when Damon walks into the room, watching them from the doorway for a few moments before chuckling dismissively. " _Vampires_ ," he says, sauntering back down the hall.

Afterward, Caroline has to borrow some of Elena's old clothes because her tank top has been shredded. Stefan sits on his bed, watching her dress, with a look of reverence and regret on his face.

"Don't apologize," Caroline reaches over to him, brushes his hair back, places a soft kiss on his forehead. They both know it had been coming for quite some time. And the truth is that both of them know that it won't be the last. Still, they make no promises to each other, save for one.

"I'll see you later," Caroline tells him.

"Yeah," he he nods.

\--

Tyler has never been a very careful lover.

He chalks this up to experience. He lost his virginity in a closet in the Lockwood mansion to a woman who's name he never knew. He was fifteen, she was _at least_ eighteen and working for his parents. He remembers her shoving him into the closet, telling him he needs to stop staring at her and just fuck her already, and pushing him hard against the shelves.

She's moving on top of him and she doesn't even take her shirt off. But Tyler doesn't care, he just grips her waist and feels her shift on top of him and suddenly he's having sex. _With her_. He remembers vaguely being aware that his mother is still at home, hopefully somewhere out of earshot. But then he just concentrates on her, the warm wetness enveloping him, the thorned tattoo on her neck, the way her breath comes out in tiny puffs of air. In less than a minute his hips jerk and he's coming inside of her and she groans with irritation. "Jesus! A virgin?"

Tyler is sure his cheeks are crimson red, but the darkness of the closet negates the need to hide his face. "Well what are you waiting for?" she says, harshly, grabbing his hand and bringing it to her middle. "Use your fingers. Get to it."

She cleans herself up, straightens her clothes, and leaves him there in the dark. It is the last time he will ever see her.

 _She never even kissed him._

He remembers thinking later that she was probably much older than eighteen.

\--

From that point on, sex is just a tool. A means to an end. He does it with whoever and wherever -- an appetite he learned from the woman with the thorned tattoo, an escape from the abuse he suffers at the hands of his father. There are older girls, younger girls, virgins, and one married woman. He even remembers Matt Donovan, on his knees in front of him, taking him into his mouth. He doesn't have any hang-ups about doing things with guys. It all leads to the same momentary ecstasy. Afterward, he makes out with him, fists his best friend in his palm. But he never fully returns the favor.

The first person things are ever different with is Vicki. He cares about her. _Maybe he even loves her_. And when he isn't always so nice to her, it's only because he's scared. And now that she's gone, Tyler knows in the end that she really loved Jeremy anyway. She deserved Jeremy. What she didn't deserve was being made to feel the way he sometimes made her feel. But he wishes sometimes that he could have told her how he felt. _At least once._

Caroline listens to his story, her fingers curling in his hair, circling his earlobe. When he finishes, she kisses his shoulder, and Tyler looks down at her face. She doesn't say anything, she just lays there next to him, pulls him tighter to her, clings to him as if he's something to be treasured. Even without the words, he understands exactly what she's saying.

\--

"Caroline asked me to come," Stefan says carrying a bag of chains in hand.

"You don't need to be here," Tyler's voice is steady, but it belies the fact that he's actually glad to see the vampire.

"She told me..." Stefan hesitates before revealing that Caroline has shared Tyler's secrets. "She told me you're not at your full strength until you turn. That I need to check for weak links. Help reinforce the door before I go. That you'll need my help."

Tyler lowers his flashlight and steps aside, allowing Stefan access to the basement. He nods. "Thanks, man."

Stefan doesn't need to stay after the initial tests, but he does. For a while they just sit quietly. Stefan watches Tyler mix his wolfsbane concoction and he pulls his phone from his pocket and checks his messages, reports the time. "She say when she was coming back?" Tyler finally asks.They talk about Caroline, and the conversation hits an awkward point when they try to avoid bringing up the fact that they're both sleeping with her.

"She's a very special girl," Stefan says, in true Stefan-like fashion.

"She is," Tyler agrees, nodding.

And that's about as far as they discuss it.

Stefan won't stay for the transformation, and he's going to have to leave soon if he wants to make it before the real pain starts. Tyler strips down and even though he doesn't have to, Stefan helps secure the shackles."You know," he says, lightly slapping Tyler's cheek, his fingers lingering there a moment afterward. "I get what she sees in you."

\--

In the morning, Stefan comes to awaken the werewolf.

Tyler is naked and bruised on the floor, but sleeping soundly, almost comfortably.

"Hey," Stefan whispers, retrieving the key to unchain him. Tyler wakes, swallows hard, but he doesn't move to cover himself up, not even when he visibly hardens at Stefan's touch, his fingers grazing Tyler's skin as he removes the chains one by one. Stefan meets Tyler's eyes and then goes back to work. Soon, Tyler sits up to allow Stefan access to the shackle around his neck, and he can see that Stefan's breath is hitched, and that he's moving more slowly than before.

As soon as Tyler's free, he pushes Stefan roughly against the basement wall and turns him around, pinning him between the cool rock and his own hardness, the adrenaline from the night before still pumping through his veins, giving him enough strength to overpower the vampire.

Tyler grinds against him, his dick at Stefan's ass, and Stefan makes a nearly imperceptible strangled sound at the sensation.

Tyler moves his hand from Stefan's waist, around to his middle, and then reaches down to find the vampire hard. "I get what she sees in you too," Tyler grunts.

In the same breath, Stefan turns, catching Tyler's lips in a rough kiss.

\--

It's her birthday and Caroline decides she's having a party. She makes lists and plans and menus. Events are her forte, and she's halfway through before she realizes, sadly, that she doesn't really have anybody to invite.

The friends she still keeps are all away at college, and while the town of Mystic Falls puts up with them, she and her merry band of shadowy creatures aren't exactly welcome citizens.

 _Tyler.  
Stefan.  
Damon._

She crosses the third name off the list. _Like that's ever going to happen._

Caroline is more perceptive than she lets on, and she's well aware that something significant occurred on the night of the full moon. When she came back, _things were different._ But she doesn't probe them about it, or even mention it really. She figures after all of her own duplicity, that it's really none of her business anyway.

She also knows that each of them care for her in their own way, and that they'll put whatever it is aside for her special day.

 _At least she hopes._

\--

"I want another drink," Caroline reaches for the bottle and Stefan snatches it from her hands. "Hey," she draws, a pout on her lips. "Mine."

"I think you've had enough," Stefan says, eying Tyler from across the couch, who nods in agreement.

"It's time for the birthday girl to call it quits," Tyler says.

" _Oh_ ," Caroline says sourly. "You two are no fun!"

Stefan hefts her over his shoulder and carries her down the hall toward the bedroom that used to be her mom's before she skipped town. Caroline giggles.

"Oh, hey! My presents!" She calls to Tyler.

Stefan dumps her on the bed and turns to see Tyler bringing the small gift bags into the room. "You got 'em?" he says, rhetorically.

Tyler nods and sets them on the dresser and then they both turn their gaze to Caroline.

\--

Birthdays, Stefan knows, are tough when you're a vampire. Days were, he thought he'd forgotten his. But Damon never did. He thought that was kind of funny, considering. "I was there when you were born," his brother reminds him from time to time. "Don't you forget it." The fact is, time marches on and either you're sad because so much of it has gone by, or you're sad because you could care less either way. It varies from year to year. So when Caroline grabs his hand in one of hers, and Tyler's hand in the other, and asks them both to stay, _they do_.

He wants to tell her that she won't always have warm bodies to accompany her on nights like this one. He wants to warn her of the empty years that are to come, to prepare her. But at the same time, he just wants to make sure that never happens to her.

Tyler settles in in front of her and Stefan curls against her back. The two men catch each other's eyes and a mutual dangerous flash passes between them.

Caroline sighs and closes her eyes, in her state, oblivious to it all.

\--

In the morning, Stefan wakes to find his hand between Caroline's legs where her dress has ridden up. Tyler lies awake on the other side of them, and his eyes meet Stefan's. The awkward position is undeniable, Caroline's sheets wrapped in a clump at her feet, her panties twisted in such a way that provides both men with a very private view, the two of them so obviously hard for her against their pants. And there's something else.

 _Stefan can smell her._

One look at Tyler and he knows that the wolf can smell her too.

Just as he's about to scramble out of her embrace and reach down to find the sheet and pull it over her, Caroline yawns and stretches, turning ever so slightly closer to him, forcing his hand to slip closer to her warmth.

She opens her eyes and turns to look at him, and then back to Tyler. Her face flushes crimson and Stefan starts to move his hand away.

" _No_ ," Caroline whispers, and the word comes out like a punch. "No don't," she says, reaching down to steady his hand. "Please?"

Stefan's breath catches in his throat and he looks down at Caroline and back to Tyler, who gives a tiny perceptible nod. Stefan closes his eyes and moves his hand up to Caroline's center, lets his finger graze over her clit, places a kiss at her neck.

Caroline shivers at his touch and reaches forward and pulls Tyler to her, kisses his sleepy mouth hungrily. She latches onto his hand, sliding it over her breast and down toward where Stefan is touching her. When she feels their fingers connect where Stefan works at her clit, she throws her head back, a whispered curse escaping her lips.

\--

Later, after they're all showered and dressed and Caroline has finally opened her birthday presents, she sits between them on the couch.

She can't help but flashing back to that morning, the feel of Tyler's hands on her while Stefan moved inside her. The sight of the werewolf and the vampire kissing, Stefan taking Tyler in his hand, the taste of salty skin on her lips. She wipes her hand at her mouth at the memory and coughs a little.

"So," she finally says. "What now?"

 _-fin_


End file.
